The United States Postal Service announced Tuesday that it had temporarily stopped accepting packages from China and Hong Kong, hours after an order by President Trump took effect that ended duty-free handling of these parcels.
The United States imports about 3 million parcels a day with almost no customs inspection and no duties collected — with most of them coming from China. An executive order President Trump signed on Saturday required that, starting Tuesday morning, each parcel must include detailed information on the contents and the tariff code that applies, as well as payment of those tariffs.
The provision on low-value parcels, known as the de minimis rule, was included in a broader order by President Trump that imposed an extra 10 percent tariff on all imports from China. But low-value parcels from China, which previously faced no tariffs at all, now face not only the 10 percent tariff, but also the many complex tariffs on every category of goods that these shipments previously skirted entirely.
FedEx and UPS move a large portion of those parcels, and now run frequent cargo flights from China to the United States to carry them. Neither company has responded yet to questions about how they will handle the new rules.
Shein and Temu are two of the largest e-commerce companies that connect low-cost Chinese factories to millions of American households. Shein declined on Tuesday to comment on the new rules on small packages, while Temu has not yet responded to questions sent on Monday.
The rapid expansion of e-commerce has long posed a dilemma for the United States customs agency, Customs and Border Protection. Customs officials were already starting to be overwhelmed by small e-commerce parcels in 2016, when they persuaded Congress and the Obama administration to raise the minimum value for customs inspection and tariff collection to $800, from $200.
Raising the duty-free minimum has allowed millions of American households to buy very low-cost goods from China. But American manufacturers in sectors like textiles and apparel have contended that the imports of small parcels have undermined their ability to stay in business.
The number of duty-free parcels has risen 10-fold since 2016. Congress has been debating for the past year how to change the rule on duty-free parcels. President Trump has contended that allowing so many packages into the United States with little or no inspection has created a conduit for fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, and related supplies to enter the United States.
